Adrian Pabst

Building a civil economy

Modern economics assumes that human beings are fundamentally self-interested. This essay will challenge that assumption, drawing in part on the ideas of Karl Polanyi, Marcel Mauss, Luigino Bruni and Stefano Zamagni. By contrast with the idea of the self-interested homo oeconomicus (central to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations), my argument is that humans are more relational, ‘gift-exchanging animals’ who are naturally disposed to cooperate for mutual benefit. In the following I will attempt to show how such an alternative anthropology can translate into a ‘civil economy’ and transformative policy ideas: rebuilding our economy and embedding welfare in communities.

July 24, 2012


Deprecated: file_exists(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($filename) of type string is deprecated in /home/resilience/public_html/wp-includes/comment-template.php on line 1624

Leave a Comment